ALMOST 150 Teessiders have been prosecuted for benefit fraud in the last year, figures from the Department of Work and Pensions reveal.

Cheats in our area falsely claimed well over half-a-million pounds in handouts.

In the North-east it is estimated that £20m every year is bogusly claimed - enough to pay for around 860 nurses.

The figures coincide with a visit to Teesside by the Government’s anti-fraud minister, James Plaskitt, who met fraud investigators in Eston.

He also viewed some of the newest technology being used in the fight against cheats, including an under-cover van with surveillance equipment.

“This technology is helping us catch people in record numbers,” he said. “I’m here to reinforce the message we’re sending out to the public that benefit fraud is a crime.”

Of the 678 people interviewed by investigators on Teesside within the last year, 144 were prosecuted.

Among those recently sentenced are:

- Deborah Guest, of Stafford Road, Grangetown, who falsely claimed almost £80,000, and was jailed for 15 months.

- Lottery winners Kelly Louise Grantham and Simon Peter Wright, of Cheriton Green, Middlesbrough who pocketed almost £4,000 despite their £52,000 jackpot. Grantham was given a two-night-a-week curfew for two months and Wright was ordered to do 60 hours unpaid community work.

- Mum-of-three Adrienne McCrai, from Hambleton Gate, Stokesley, who claimed more than £23,000 to pay for a private education for her kids. She was given a six-month suspended sentence.

- Carol Michelle Green of Redcar who was anonymously shopped by e-mail for pocketing more than £28,000 - and jailed for nine months.

Hotspots where the most fraud is suspected are the TS3, TS19 and TS24 postcode areas, the DWP has revealed.

More than 4,700 calls were made to the benefit cheat hotline and the most common type of fraud involved working while still claiming. The figures also show perpetrators cost every person in the North-east about £8 a year.